By Sonia RolleyPosted on 12-03-2019Modified on 12-03-2019 at 18:06

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is experiencing the first peaceful transition in its history at the head of the state. Despite accusations of electoral fraud, the new Congolese head of state, Félix Tshisekedi, has been recognized by the international community as a whole and has since made some very remarkable announcements. Congo is experiencing an unprecedented situation, the creation of a very strange coalition between the party of the historical opponent Etienne Tshisekedi and the regime of his rival, the outgoing Joseph Kabila. Back on this turn of the story.

" One evening, Etienne Tshisekedi makes me come at the end of 2014, I believe, it was before the beginning of the anti-third term demonstrations ," says a close to the new Congolese head of state. Unhappy presidential candidate in 2011, the Patriarch of the Congolese opposition has spent his last ten years traveling back and forth for reasons of health between Kinshasa and Brussels and his condition has deteriorated further. He who had proclaimed himself elected president in 2011 was since obsessed with the concept of "Imperium", the effectiveness of power. " Tshisekedi said to me: in 2011, I was stolen, I waited for the transfer of the Imperium, in vain, " says this close Etienne Tshisekedi. " In 2016, the people will still vote me. I am ready to talk to make things better. "The historical opponent would have made a condition to the opening of negotiations with" the impostor "Joseph Kabila:" No Tshisekedi should appear in this case . "

Other leaders of his party, such as former secretary-general Jacquemain Shabani, refer to a decision of the party: " After the fight for the truth of the polls of 2011, the stagnation with this strategy, internal discussions at the UDPS have led in 2015 to negotiate . The concept of "Imperium", the son of Etienne, Felix Tshisekedi, long-time national secretary of the UDPS, has spent years explaining it to journalists from the Congolese diaspora. " The Imperium is the effectiveness of power, " summed up in August 2012 the future president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Although " elected president " in 2011, in the absence of international support, Etienne Tshisekedi could not get his hands on the levers of command that are " the police, the army and the administration ". " The impostors use force, so we are seeking the allegiance of all the forces of the Republic to restore the rule of law, " commented Felix Tshisekedi at the time. Moreover, since his inauguration in January 2019, isolated in front of renowned institutions acquired from his predecessor Joseph Kabila, the new Congolese head of state has made the improvement of the living conditions of the police, the military and the agents of the public enterprises one of its priorities.

" Give yourself a third term "

Like the UDPS or the Catholic Church, Joseph Kabila had also prepared for the next round. His second and final constitutional term was to end in November 2016. " The president is engaging in poaching, it is a strategy that has proven successful, " says one of his ministers. " After the 2006 elections, he emptied of his most influential members the MLC, the main challenger party. After 2011, it was the turn of the UDPS. This member of the outgoing government takes pleasure to remind: the last two Prime Ministers are from the ranks of the UDPS. " Kabila even managed to take the last two of Etienne Tshisekedi's personal doctors ," adds the minister without hiding his satisfaction.

One of the strategies of the former head of state to broaden his coalition and ease tensions, it was the use of frameworks of extra-institutional dialogue, the opposition being, after the controversial elections of 2011 reduced to the minimum portion in all assemblies. In 2013, Joseph Kabila launched the " national consultations " . According to the minister's confidences to RFI, the future former head of state had at the time only one obsession: "To offer a third mandate, by changing the Constitution or by delaying the organization of polls. According to him, Joseph Kabila has " long procrastinated " about the change of Constitution and finally turned down on a " simple modification of the electoral law " which must condition the organization of the elections to a very hypothetical general census of the population.

" Negotiating with the UDPS, it's useless "

When the debate on the electoral law is launched in January 2015, the first anti-third term protests erupt and the presidential camp becomes frightened. " We had never seen protests last a week, with violence like that, " said a senior cadre of the pro-Kabila coalition, the Common Front for Congo (FCC). " It was the beginning of WhatsApp groups and we had no way to infiltrate them. For the next four years, the crackdown is intense, according to the UN. Youths from political parties, student networks and citizen movements are the most targeted. Security forces become the main source of insecurity in the country.

To "slip", without much damage, Joseph Kabila now wants to have with him his old rival Etienne Tshisekedi. Even though his party, the UDPS, did not take part in the January 2015 demonstrations. " We were told, Tshisekedi is tired, out of breath and even in palliative care, so we tried to approach him, " he said. still remember this high-profile FCC. " His family was paid the salary arrears of former prime ministers, which allowed his family to pay for his care and a little more. This type of allegation is recurrent among relatives of the former head of state and still strongly contradicted by the entourage of the new, recalling that the UDPS is one of the parties in the Congo not to mobilize with the 'money.

Nevertheless, the first meetings between the delegations of Joseph Kabila and the UDPS are happening in Ibiza, Venice and even Geneva, in " these expensive cities where fighters [Editor's note UDPS activists who do not hesitate to 'take it to Europe to the dignitaries of the regime] will not come to bother us , "even suggested Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, the outgoing Minister of Justice.

If Joseph Kabila seems sure of his plan, it makes some worries in his camp. " We told him, it is useless to negotiate with the UDPS, " recalls one of his ministers. " We even insisted: Mobutu tried, he did not, you will not succeed. What Etienne Tshisekedi decides in the morning, he defeats at night. The future former head of state proposes to his rival to change the Constitution and to take him as vice-president until the elections that were to be postponed. " Unsurprisingly, the old man refused, " concludes the minister triumphantly. In Brussels, in August 2015, having heard of negotiations, dozens of fighters demonstrate to the cries of Étienne Tshisekedi " collabo ".

" Access to power with some power "

While 2016 was supposed to be an election year, Etienne Tshisekedi himself said he refused a dialogue convened by Joseph Kabila in a letter to Dlamini Zuma, then President of the African Union Commission (AU) . The pan-African organization had dispatched former Togolese Prime Minister Edem Kodjo. The historical opponent does not trust either of them.

In Brussels, with the support of the former governor of Katanga, the wealthy Moïse Katumbi, Etienne Tshisekedi tries to unite the opposition around him and launches into a tussle by the street. It's just a matter of power struggle, Etienne Tshisekedi is still convinced of the need for a dialogue, according to his family, and his opponents know it. " He sabotaged the dialogue of the African Union, but he understood that he could access power only by having some of the power, " says a senior executive of the pro-Kabila coalition.

On the return of Etienne Tshisekedi at the end of July 2016, hundreds of thousands of Kinois accompany the convoy . At the time, the provincial commissioner of Kinshasa concedes it, he would never have the men to contain all this crowd. Despite pressure, the opposition patriarch refuses to participate in the dialogue of the African Union. Joseph Kabila then makes two decisions that take his entourage by surprise. He asked the Episcopal Conference, hostile to his stay in power, to facilitate a new dialogue and nominates Samy Badibanga, the former political adviser Etienne Tshisekedi, as Prime Minister. This businessman was identified as having played a major role in the 2011 campaign.

In the UDPS, this appointment is seen as a new affront to a new attempt to weaken the party. But for the pro-Kabila coalition, it was also a gesture of openness. " Badibanga grew up with Felix, they are brothers, " analyzes a cadre of the former presidential majority. " By appointing Badibanga, we also showed that we, the presidential camp, were able to hand over the prime minister to the UDPS, it has always been on the table.

The death of Etienne Tshisekedi

While the negotiations under the aegis of the Catholic Church trample, Etienne Tshisekedi calls late to the street, via a video message posted on the Internet and without explanation of the party, after the cutting of social networks. Joseph Kabila passes the milestone of 2016 at the head of the State, without worrying about the limit of the number of mandates and his majority ends up signing in extremis , under pressure from the international community, a framework agreement the evening of New Year's Eve.

" When you sign, Tshisekedi is alive, " said the source in the former presidential majority. The prime minister is promised to the UDPS, but the pro-Kabila coalition continues to take a dim view of its rapprochement with Moïse Katumbi and their dissidents. Joseph Kabila would have even used this argument to justify his reluctance to implement the agreement of New Year's Eve. " The president even says it to Idriss Deby [then President-in-Office of the African Union], he can not give a bonus to treason. "

When Etienne Tshisekedi dies on February 1, 2017 in Brussels, the negotiations on the division of power between Joseph Kabila and his opposition are far from over. " It's a coincidence, but it falls at the wrong time, " says a close to the new president. For the former presidential majority who played the watch, the ultimate risk to contain becomes the specter of this immense crowd that will undoubtedly accompany the return of the body of the patriarch of the opposition in his stronghold, Kinshasa.

President Kabila's chief of staff, Nehemiah Mwilanya, is in charge of calling the son of the historical opponent to offer him a national funeral. " Felix was for, but the people of the UDPS did not trust and wanted to condition his funeral to the signing of power-sharing agreements ," says the senior executive of the pro-Kabila coalition. " The president said, it's over, we forget these people, they procrastinate too much. "

► To follow, How Tshisekedi became president (3/3): the bet of Felix

    On the same subject

    How Tshisekedi became president of Congo (1/3): Etienne's revenge?

    DRC: controversy around the funerary monument dedicated to Etienne Tshisekedi

    DRC: Tshisekedi and Kabila platforms opt for coalition

    comments